Hi, Ed - Wow, thanks for all this legwork; what you've come up with is very interesting indeed. In 1974, the US Copyright Act of 1976 hadn't yet become law, so the benefits of registering every little piece of art with the copyright office were not as substantial as they were to become only a couple of years later; it certainly makes sense that 20th, and others, wouldn't have gone to the trouble of exhaustively registering everything they commissioned at that time. You're right that the film had some success, such as it was, in Canada, particularly as compared to its dismal reception in the US. I'm not sure, though, about the relevance of the change in copyright information in 1974 from 20th Century to Pressman-Williams: To my knowledge, the ONLY artwork to which Pressman-Williams claimed copyright was the Corben artwork in the Style C one-sheet, which is of course completely different from this piece. That is, Pressman-Williams never asserted any copyright interest in this particular poster, or the artwork contained within it, ever.. So the weird copyright date issue remains, to me, a mystery. Another correspondent has suggested that the "Copyright 1978" might just have been an error, plain and simple. As far as 20th Century Fox's archives. my understanding is that they have virtually nothing on this film, which is why Fox has, in the past, actually borrowed materials from me(!) on occasion. I'll be amazed if the archivist there comes up with anything, but of course extremely grateful. And thanks for the kind words about the site! I appreciate it! -Ari From: MoPo List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of ed Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 06:34 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [MOPO] Can anyone identify this Phantom of the Paradise poster? Hi -Ari, I had some collectors email and ask me to take a look at your poster. Phantom was definitely an unusual production with a LOT of oddities. Looking at the poster in question, it's laid out in standard international format without any US ratings or NSS information (which is obvious). At that time, NSS was printing most of 20th Century's 'printed in US' international pieces but just not putting the NSS information on them. I doesn't appear that this poster was actually registered in the copyright office so no information from that direction. But that was standard with 20th Century. There is a clause in their contract with NSS for them to just apply the copyright date without registering it. I checked the NSS logs and no record of distribution from NSS at that time. It appears that the film had more popularity in Canada. NSS printed and shipped this style poster to Canada. There were 4 major NSS outlets in Canada that would then apply local ratings by way of stickers. One possibility could be that an additional print was made in 1978 for one or more of the Canadian NSS outlets. With the change in copyright information from 20th Century in 1974 to Pressman Williams in 1975, the change back on a new printing to 20th Century would have caused them to apply the new date. This seems like the most logical reason for this issue. Unfortunately, I don't have anyone in Canada to confirm this. I know the archivist at 20th Century Fox, so I sent it over to him and asked if he would check to see if there was anything in their files that would indicate the purpose of this issue. As soon as I hear back from him, I'll be glad to post it. Best, Ed Poole [email protected] owner LearnAboutMoviePosters.com <http://www.learnaboutmovieposters.com/> MoviePosterDataBase.com <http://www.learnaboutmovieposters.com/newsite/MOVIES/MPDB.asp> 504-298-LAMP P. S. I looked at your presentation of Phantom on your site. You have done a fantastic job and really need to be commended. _____
From: MoPo List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of The Principal Archivist Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 12:12 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [MOPO] Can anyone identify this Phantom of the Paradise poster? Hi, I'm brand new to this group, but have been collecting film memorabilia, particularly material related to a 1974 Brian De Palma film called "Phantom of the Paradise," for about thirty years, and recently acquired an item that baffles me; I'm wondering if any of you might have any insight you'd be kind enough to share. The poster is pictured here: http://www.swanarchives.org/AJ/mysteryintl.jpg It's one-sheet sized: 27"x41", and is on the same sort of glossy stock as was used for American one sheets in the 70's. While at first glance it looks like a regular Style A one-sheet, (1) there's no PG logo (suggesting it might be for an international release); (2) there's no NSS verbiage at the bottom-center and no NSS number (just "Litho in USA"); and (3) most oddly of all, the copyright notice under the 20th Century Fox logo says "1978," when the film was released in 1974, and there was no international release (as far as I've been able to determine) that commenced in 1978. Also, it has three horizontal folds, but NO vertical fold, which seems odd to me. While the relative size of the artwork is correct as compared to the regular Style A one-sheets, the credits at the bottom are in a smaller font than on the one-sheet, and are also in yellow, rather than in in the white print that's found on the one-sheet. (For comparison, you could take a look at the one-sheet on my site, at http://www.swanarchives.org, at this particular page: http://www.swanarchives.org/Promotion.asp ) And, if you're actually interested in memorabilia from this film, the non-American stuff I've been able to find is here: http://www.swanarchives.org/Promotion_World.asp Although I've named the file "mysteryintl.jpg," that's just my own name for it, and the use of "intl" shouldn't be construed as evidence that it's a poster for an international release. I was just guessing. Any help? This is keeping me up at night. Thanks! -Ari Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. ======= Email scanned by PC Tools - No viruses or spyware found. (Email Guard: 7.0.0.18, Virus/Spyware Database: 6.14860) http://www.pctools.com <http://www.pctools.com/?cclick=EmailFooterClean_51> ======= Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
